Photographer Tom Cole and his guide haul friends and family across the Pearl of the Indian Ocean, barely pulling the handbrake to eat, see, sleep, and shit. Pure National Lampoon's Vacation blur. There's some logic to it though... more ground covered, more photo opportunities. What's the catch?
Photos: Tom Cole.
Kodak moments are short-lived under the heel of a tour guide. Stiff chance swinging the van around in this traffic, they'll tell ya. Blink and you'll miss it etc. etc. Either shut your eyes and go to sleep, or anxiously clutch your camera. White-knuckled, Tom delivers our latest Sri Lankan Photo Diary from the passenger seat. We won't ask about the ones that got away.
We actually went to Sri Lanka on a family holiday, something we hadn’t done in years because my family is kind of like the Brady Bunch. My older brother was about to turn 40, while my younger brother had just turned 21. Partners were welcome. There were 10 of us. The real kicker was that Mum had just overcome her first bout with cancer and had only recently been cleared to travel. So, in classic Mum fashion, we went.
Usually, when I travel for work with all my camera gear, shooting film tends to take a back seat. This trip was different, with no expectation to shoot for anyone but myself. I wanted to travel light, take only one camera, and document the experience entirely on film. Slowing down and shooting that way suited Sri Lanka kinda perfectly, every frame felt textured, colourful, and human.
We travelled around the country in one of those family-style tour vans with a guide, a strict itinerary, and a schedule for everything, when to eat, when to stop, when to ask questions, and when to shit. Kinda funny, but kinda entertaining too. We still managed to do our own thing, but it gave the trip this educational structure, which was actually pretty insightful.
Having someone explain their country to you as you move through it is something I’d actually recommend. Sri Lanka has an incredibly deep and layered history. We learned about Buddhist cultural customs, asked questions about the decades-long Tamil conflict and civil war, and saw what daily life is actually like for Sri Lankans today. Despite the hardships the country has faced, from war to economic instability and the 2004 tsunami, the people we met were warm, generous, and really appreciative.
Sri Lanka is often called the “Pearl of the Indian Ocean,” and it makes sense when you’re there. In the space of a few hours, the landscape can shift from tropical coastline to misty tea plantations, jungle, temples, and wildlife reserves. So being able to capture that as we moved through it was awesome.
We stopped at ancient temples, saw elephants and wildlife, ate incredible food, and sweated like banshees. A memorable moment was stumbling across a yearly pilgrimage celebration where groups from surrounding towns gathered in huge parades through the streets and town squares. Families would sleep wherever they ended up after the long nights of celebration and pilgrimage, before washing themselves in the river, which was considered holy water. I’m pretty sure there were crocodiles in there. My four-year-old niece was also the only one to see a tiger.
I’m very lucky to have experienced another culture together with my whole family and to document even just a snippet of it.
View more Hung Supply Photo Diaries, here.
